Friday 11 January 2008

Professor William ChafePic: M. Throsby

10.05amProfessor William Chafe (repeat)Professor of History at Duke University.

You might imagine that to reach the heights of political power and influence, an individual would need to come from a well-off and secure background, without too many obstacles along the path. William Chafe studied the lives of a group of 20th Century American leaders including Presidents Roosevelt, Kennedy, Johnson,Nixon, Reagan, Kennedy and Clinton, along with Eleanor Roosevelt, Martin Luther King Jr and Hillary Clinton and discovered that far from the easy life, these many of these individuals came from unhappy and disfunctional families and that many of them experienced personal crises that profoundly influenced their subsequent decision making once in power.

"Private Lives / Public Consequences: Personality and Politics in Modern America" is published by Harvard University Press (2005)